Media and sustainable development: empowering the people through community radio.

Publication: Our Rights

Publication Date: 01-JUL-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)

Over the lest 12 years Africans have realised the power of the media. In the 1980s, there were less then 10 privately owned radio stations in the whole of Africa. Today this number likely exceed one thousand. Many of these are community radio stations owned by pear communities.

Community radio is the basic and popular communication medium of millions of people at grassroots level. It is an effective communication vehicle, which identifies and prioritises development needs at local level. It helps such development through exposure, pressure, discussion and debate.

During the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), 30 community radio producers from Mozambique, Malawi, Mali, Toga, the Gambia and South Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe gathered in South Africa to produce programmes for the benefit of their communities. The broadcast was organised in partnership with South Africa's National Community Radio Forum (NCRF).

The broadcast provided in-depth community radio coverage of Sustainable development issues end was beamed live vie satellite and Internet platforms in French. English and Portuguese to community radio listeners around the world. According to World Space, the captive audience for this broadcast was as high as 200 million, of which 50 million were Africans.

The broadcast enabled Africans across the continent, whose lives will he impacted by the Summit, a glimpse into the deliberations. In addition, some of the communities of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) Africa's 150 member radio stations were able to share their communities' experiences, representations and concerns on issues surrounding sustainable development.

The broadcast was part of the Radio Voices Without Frontiers (RVSF) programme of (AMARC) Africa. The programme aims to mainstream the voices of grassroots communities through community radio and to encourage collaboration and information sharing among the community radio stations of the world.

"This was a very exciting project for...

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